For Kernels pitcher Velez, any day on the field could be his last

CEDAR RAPIDS – He has asked his local billet family for a favor. Jose Velez wants as many photos as he can get of his experience with the Cedar Rapids Kernels.

Take a picture of him standing in the dugout next to a teammate during a game. Snap one while he's catching a ceremonial first pitch.

You'd especially better get him when he's on the mound relief pitching. Those are the ones he wants the most.

This whole thing means the world to the 25-year-old Queens native. He lived a 15-minute walk from Shea Stadium and Citi Field, the former and current homes of the New York Mets.

'Growing up where I'm from, it's just really hard to make it out of there,” Velez said. 'People love baseball there, but they don't achieve their goals. There is too much partying, or girls, or they just don't want to work hard enough. They don't want to get out of their comfort zone, want to stay in the city.

'Me, I'm not going to lie, I wasn't the brightest kid. But my mom gave me the opportunity to move to Florida when I was 17. I had a bad attitude, that New York attitude. The reason I'm telling you this is because you never know when it's going to be your last day.”

This goes beyond Velez's unique journey to becoming a Minnesota Twins farmhand. He definitely has taken the road less traveled, one maybe never traveled.

There were two years playing at a community college back in New York and a torn ulnar collateral ligament in his left elbow that required Tommy John surgery. That injury occurred on a throw from the outfield, of all things.

Two years of rehab ensued, followed by a stint at Division III Alma College in Michigan and two years of pitching for the Evansville Otters in the independent Frontier League. The first year there was cut short by another injury, naturally.

Minnesota liked him enough to sign him last fall as a free agent. It was about his stuff, though you'd like to believe it also was a reward for a man with incredible perserverance.

'I was actually at (a restaurant), and my coach called and said ‘I have the Twins or the Diamondbacks,'” Velez said. 'The Twins are like two and a half hours from me in spring training. I used to live in Fort Myers, so, of course, my answer was the Twins.”

His deal was finalized later that night.

'I cried right then and there,” Velez said. 'It was one of the best moments of my life.”

Two weeks before he was to report for spring training came one of the worst moments of his life. He was at his mother and stepfather's house in Florida, sitting up in bed and watching something on his computer.

He doesn't remember the rest.

'My girlfriend knows I like to play around a lot, but she told me I started shaking, my lips turned blue, and saliva was coming out of my mouth,” he said. 'She said it was like there was a bucket of water on the bed. I didn't move, she was trying to shake me out of it, yelling ‘Babe!' and things like that. She started crying, my mom and her called 9-1-1.”

It was a seizure, and Velez would have another while in the hospital, where he stayed for five days. Doctors discovered it was epilepsy, caused by the rupture of blood vessels in his left frontal lobe.

Blood clotted over time and triggered the seizures.

'The first thing I asked the doctor was ‘Will I be able to play?'” Velez said. 'I'd been trying to get this opportunity for seven years. I worked all this time, and now this. It was pretty emotional.”

Velez was prescribed medication to help deal with his condition, but he suffered such severe side effects (muscle fatigue, general fatigue, drowsiness) that it had to be changed. He still has some of those side effects but not nearly as bad.

He also has not had any more seizures. Velez was assigned to high-Class A Fort Myers in late April, where he pitched in a couple of games. He was assigned to Cedar Rapids from extended spring training last week and has made two appearances for the Kernels.

'This is a blessing, man,” he said, standing in a stadium hallway outside his team's clubhouse. 'If you don't like it here, go try independent ball and see what that is.”

No one knows what his future holds, or how much of one he really has on the baseball diamond. Velez is scheduled for a follow-up MRI on his brain soon.

Have things changed? For the worse? For the better? He is nervous to find out.

'The thing I am fearing the most is that it gets worse, and I will have to get surgery,” he said. 'I pray every day that doesn't happen. If I need surgery, the doctor said most likely I would be done playing baseball for the rest of the year. I asked him what about career-wise, and he said we'd have to play it by ear. I'm afraid.”

His girlfriend and family give him constant encouragement and believe everything will be just fine.

His mom likes to get online and either watch or listen to Kernels games.

'She asks me every day ‘Are you pitching today?'” Velez said. 'I'm like, ‘Mom, I'm not a starter. I can't tell you. Just play it by ear and listen to the radio.' My girlfriend and my stepfather always tell me she just goes crazy when I'm pitching and she's on the laptop watching or listening.”

Velez has come so far to get where he's at, it wouldn't be right to have it end this way. It'd be flat wrong.

There have got to be many more days ahead. Many more photos ahead.

'I am always stressing about it,” he said. 'At the same time, my mom just says ‘You are going to be good.' If I wasn't doing well or doing better with the medication, I'd feel worse. It's just maintaining my health right now. I haven't had a problem since. Hopefully everything is good. Do I still have some side effects? Yeah. But I just push through that. That's not going to stop me.”

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